"Children's Books - Tin Soldier" - читать интересную книгу автора (Children's Books)

THE TIN SOLDIER

Once upon a time . . . there lived a child who had a lot of toys. The child
kept his toys in his room and spent many happy hours everyday playing with
them. One of his favourite games was the battle with the tin soldiers. He
arranged the little toy soldiers in their respective ranks and fought
imaginary battles.
When the boy received the soldiers, as a present, he noticed that one of
them had been made, by mistake, with just one leg. Despite the missing limb,
the boy placed the little mutilated soldier in the front lines, encouraging
him to be the most valorous of all the little soldiers. The child did not know
that, at night, the toys became animated and talked between themselves.
It often happened that, when lining up the soldiers after playing with
them, the little boy would forget about the little tin soldier without a leg
and left him with all the other toys. It was thus that the little metal
soldier got to talk to a pretty tin ballerina.
A great friendship was born between the two, and pretty soon the little
soldier fell in love with the ballerina. But the nights went by quickly, and
he did not find the courage to declare his love to her. When the child played
with the soldiers and positioned him in the front lines, the little soldier
hoped that the ballerina would notice his courage in battle. And in the
evening, when the ballerina asked the soldier if he had been afraid, he
proudly answered, "No."
But the loving stares and sighs of the little soldier did not go unnoticed
by the jack-in-the-box. One night, the jackin-the-box said to the little
soldier: "Hey you! Don't look at the ballerina like that!" The poor little
soldier was confused and he blushed, but the kind ballerina cheered him up.
"Don't listen to him, he is ugly and jealous. I am very happy to talk to
you," she said blushing too. The two little tin flgurines were both too shy to
speak of their love.
One day they were separated. The boy picked up the tin soldier and placed
him on the window-sill.
"You stay here and watch for the enemy," he said. Then the boy played
inside with the other soliders.
It was summer and in the days that followed the soldier remained on the
window-sill. But one afternoon there was a sudden storm and a strong wind
shook the windows. The Iittle soldier fell head first off the window-sill. His
bayonet stuck into the ground. It kept raining and storming and pretty soon
the rain formed big puddles and the gutters were full. A group of boys in the
nearby school waited for the storm to end and when it stopped raining hard
they ran outdoors.
Joking and laughing, the boys hopped over the bigger puddles while two of
them cautiously walked next to the wall so that the sprinkling rain wouldn't
wet them. These two boys noticed the little tin soldier stuck in the sodden
earth.
"Too bad he has just one leg. Otherwise, I'd take him home with me," one of
the boys said. The other boy picked him up and put him in his pocket.
"Let's take him anyway," he said. "We could use him for something." On the
other side of the street, the gutter was overflowing and the current carried a
little paper boat.